App Fights Underage Drinking

Based on data from GuestMetrics, spirits sales increased from 32.1 percent in 2011 to 32.6 percent in 2012 and has accelerated to 33.8 percent in 1Q13—with liquor sales generating larger and larger percentages of revenue, can you afford to lose your liquor license? If you’re serving alcohol to minors, that’s a risk you’re taking.

In 2011, 39 percent of high school students had consumed alcohol, 22 percent binge drank according to the 2011 Youth Risk Behavior Study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Law official are looking to crack down on underage drinking and fake ID manufacturing.

Nelson Ludlow, the CEO of Intellicheck, has an app for that. “Drinking accidents in college have always been an interest [to us for personal reasons],” he says. BarZapp was the solution.

Using the same technology that military bases use for scanning military IDs, the information on a driver’s license can be collected using an iPhone camera.

Downloadable through iTunes the app has two prices; $1.99 for 10 scans per day, and $19.95 per month for unlimited scans.

The easy to read interface is based on a three-color scale: Green—good to go, Yellow—expired, and Red­—fake.

Ludlow believes the intuitive system benefits the staff; it eliminates the need for staff to do math or bars to spend time scrutinizing an ID.

BarZapp will soon be expanding their platform to include a ban list and VIP list. BarZapp will let you know when to let someone to the VIP lounge, or when the troublemaker from the night before attempts to return. BarZapp helps bars keep track of their customers and maximize list efficiency.

“You don’t have the same people working day and night,” Ludlow says. The app allows the day and night staffs to effectively communicate.

Privacy is very important to barZapp; the app only uses the name, ID number, and date of birth. The customer’s address and social security number are not retained by the app.

By Kirsten Ballard

News and information presented in this release has not been corroborated by FSR, Food News Media, or Journalistic, Inc.